Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Incredible Life of the Creator of Anne of Green Gables
5.5 x 8.5pb / 127pp / $9.95 Cdn / $7.95 US
ISBN 1-55153-775-3

L.M. Montgomery, the creator of Anne of Green Gables and author of more than 20 books, is a household name the world over.  Anne of Green Gables has been translated into 40 different languages and immortalized on film.  The spirited story of orphaned Anne was inspired by the natural beauty of Prince Edward Island.

Prologue

Maud sorted through her papers and dejectedly separated the letters of rejection. It hardly seemed fair that the last one had been so blunt, but she shrugged it off. “After all,” she told herself, “you are only starting to find your own voice as a writer.”

True to the schedule she was trying to maintain every day, Maud had gotten up that morning before dawn to steal some time for her passion — writing. Her grandmother was still asleep, the stove was stoked for breakfast, and any other household chores could wait a few hours.

Maud opened her small black notebook and began to leaf through it page by page, looking for an idea. Her fast scrawl, developing into a personal kind of shorthand, covered the sheets in careful scratches. They were glimpses of her moods, random thoughts, and dreamy passages with snippets of prose.

As she scanned, however, the last rejection letter for her secretly written novel pestered her. She’d put so much time into it. Surely some of it was salvageable. Perhaps a shortened version might be accepted for a Sunday school paper. I can earn $5 for that, and heaven knows I need the money, she thought.

Petting her cat, Maud tried to remember what she had done with the manuscript. She searched through the stacks on her writing desk and then suddenly remembered. The hatbox!

Maud pulled the box from the cupboard and scooped out her handwritten pages. With a satisfied murmur, she made herself comfortable at her desk and began to read. She hadn’t got through half the manuscript when she decided her character deserved one more chance.

“It’s really not half bad,” Maud whispered to herself. She stuffed the pages into an envelope and gave it a gentle pat. “Good luck, Anne with an ‘e.’”